Pecan

northwoods . . .

It’s not that the selections Bob and I are discussing are not cold-hardy… it’s that you need to calculate your frost free days and degree heating units to satisfy your own self. Zone 3 is pushing it, o.k. Zone 4, no . . .

Go to:
www.weatherdatadepot.com

When you get there type in the zip code that you need information on, and set your base at 65 and select Fahrenheit

The columns show CDD (cooling degree days) total at the bottom and HDD (heating degree days) - total also at the bottom of each column.

Here is data for Aledo, IL. for example. I compared 2012 to year 2015 but year values can be changed to suit whichever years you’d like to see. This would come in very-very handy when seeing how large or small a crop of pecans/hickory for (a) given year was produced.

COOLING & HEATING DEGREE DAYS Aledo, IL

In 2012 Aledo had 1237 Cooling Degree Days (CDD) and 3434 Heating Degree Days (HDD)
In comparison year 2015 Aledo has had 1017 CDD thus far and has had 4397 HDD thus far.

More info:

What most people miss-calculate in figuring frost free days, is that pecan foliage and buds are killed at around 26 degrees, not 32 degrees. So to an accurate idea of how many growing days one has is to find out when the temperature stops falling below 28 degrees in the spring, and when it starts to fall below 28 degrees in the fall.

Bob Harper ^^^


Now for Frost Free Days

If you’d like to check other locations:

http://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/efotg_locator.aspx

Then here’s a picture tutorial on how to achieve results:

Step 1: Click on a State

Step 2: Click on a County

Step 3: from the dropdown menu choose Section II where you currently see Section I

Step 4: Now select Climatic Data by clicking on it.

Step 5: Now select/click AgACIS (Agricultural Applied Climate Information)

Step 6: Choose the values. (Frost/freeze dates) (Location) Set Variable to 28 F (Year or Years) Then Click GO.

Lastly @northwoodswis4, A plain northern pecan rootstock is the norm which the selections Bob and I have talked about are grafted onto. Even though ‘northern pecan’ are typically pecans grown from places such as Missouri being one example, they are hardy thru zone 4.

Hope this all helps now!

DAX

4 Likes

All readers, I mad a mistake in the information I gave on pecans.

Ernie’s Deer Stand and Wes’s Green Island Beaver are not the same. Wes states that his Green island Beaver is also aka: Cornfield.

Sorry if I caused any confusion. There is enough confusion on correct names as it is.

Bob Harper

2 Likes

I’ll have to study this all out, it appears. Right now I am enjoying watching the snow falling outside.

@robert_2007 et al:

Got an interesting email from Wes Rice about Carya illinoinensis ‘Warren 346’

"Warren 346 is one of those cultivars with significant overlap in pollen shed and pistillate receptivity. It has some other unusual properties also besides unusually early nut maturity for a nut of that size–it has late precocity and a “unruly” tree structure. Back in Tommy Thompson’s tenure at the USDA pecan breeding station, he said Warren 346 was Type II, and informed me that the only sure way to tell on any cultivar is when the stigma is receptive to pollen grain adherence (pollen sticks to the receptive stigma). It’s pretty easy to tell when pollen dehiscence occurs from the anthers on the catkin. If you “flick” the catkin and pollen comes out, this establishes when pollen shed occurs. Some times in rainy or extreme humidity, pollen shed will be retarded-- reducing the period of pollen shed or delaying the start- or terminating the shed early. Using this criteria, Warren 346 is Type II – at least on my trees. Pistil size and shape are also indicators of dichogamy-- but not foolproof.

Bill Reid, last I heard, is going by the visual appearance of the catkin-- which is not always accurate. At one time, Reid and Ken Hunt(I believe) had it classed as Type II also. I think Dale Warren also called it Type II, but don’t know if it was from his observation, or by someone else.

I’m sure this may be as clear as thick mud!

Wes"

1 Like

I’ve got two seedling selections, made by nutgrower friends in MI - ‘Nofs Early’ from Gordon Nofs in Flint, and one from Roger Miller in Eaton Rapids(I just call it Roger Miller… 'cause I’ve already got his ‘King of the Road’ shagbark…). Grafted them years ago, and they’re still stuck in the nursery row, now too big for me to hand-dig and move. I don’t have any first-hand experience with the nuts, scab-resistance, or anything along those lines, but these two long-time nutgrowers, now in their 80s, thought they were good enough to keep.
I don’t know if they’d produce in zone 4, but scionwood’s available if anyone wants to try them.

2 Likes

Dax, thanks for posting the email you got from Wes, pertaining to Warren 346.

That makes Warren 346 a much desirable partner for folks in very cold areas, looking for the correct pollinating pair of pecans.

I’m thinking that I would add Iowa, Green Island Beaver, and James Early.

I’m still in the process of trying obtain other cold hardy pecans, that might possible do well in in a zone 4

Bob Harper

1 Like

Bob,
I’ve also got P-3, which is a Carl Weschke far-northern pecan selection. It’s never produced nuts here - so I can’t swear that it is ‘as advertised’… scionwood came from David Johnson, who was the NNGA Hickory chairman, a number of years back - along with some ‘W-17’ shagbark.
Thought I had NC-6, too - but I’m not sure I could locate it now… it was a selection, IIRC from Doug Campbell in Ontario… photos I’ve seen of the nut strongly resemble ‘Peruque’, a selection from St. Charles MO - which is usually dropping mature nuts here on 15 September (but weevils and jays/crows hit it hard… and scab is a problem some years)

Northwoods,

Try Green Barn. They say they have zone 3 pecans. That’s about all I know about their pecans. I will try to attach their link.

Can’t seem to be able to attach their link for you.

But, there are the Green barn in Canada.

Nof’s Early

Lucky, thank you for the offer of scion wood for Nof’s Early. I would like to take you up on that offer. If you could spare 6 pieces, I would appreciate it.

Do you have any additional information on Nof’s early?

Such as when it shuck splits compared to Colby.?

Is it protogynous, or protandrous?

Do you have any information on the pecan, you are calling Millers.

Also, would you happen to have the real Hadu # 2 ?

Let me know how much I need to send to you to cover cost and shipping.

My email address is: robertcharper@gmail.com

Thanks again.

Bob Harper

For someone new to pecans, what would you recommend for zone 6B? And which nursery? Thanks.

Need to know specifically your location (or the nearest metropolitan area) from you, Laura. A zone sort of helps but it’s not definitive enough information.

Dax

Thanks, Dax. Northern Maryland, near I-83, about 15 miles south of the Pennsylvania line.

You have 164 frost free days as an average, annually.
You have plenty of summer heat and plenty of winter cold to grow pecans. In fact you have awesome heating degree days conditions and cooling degree days to grow pecans.

Based on the frost free days you need to select cultivars that fill their nuts in 165 days or less. Your two best selections for flowering compatibility and maturation are ‘Hark’ and ‘Mullahy’. I graft both of these or you could get a really large ‘Hark’ from John at Nolin River Nursery spring of 2018. I’ve been sending John scionwood of Hark. You may call John to ask he grafts some Mullahy this spring as a request, for you.

The difference among John and I is that I bench graft one-year whips and sell them 3-months after they’ve proven good callousing and stayed alive. Whereas John has large seedling rootstocks in the ground that he grafts onto and gets phenomenal growth in a year. Then he hires backhoe guys to dig his roots. My grafts are 15 dollars + shipping and Johns will be something like 50 - 80 dollars + shipping.

Dax

1 Like

Thank you very much, Dax. That is tremendously helpful. I’ll give it some thought on which route I want to go. Much appreciated. After reviewing your earlier posts on Hark, I am definitely interested. But I have never grafted.

My trees are 1 ft. approximately and John’s are 4-6’ tall.

If you haven’t grafted you’d spend a ton less just buying trees. Pecans are not the easiest to graft (wood is extremely hard) and getting a good connection is always important (no gaps between scion and rootstock when tied together and mending/callousing.)

I’m on ebay as conifers825
I’ll begin to sell usually the 2nd thru the 4th week of June.

Dax

1 Like

Thanks!

Sure thing.

Dax

Just going to add my two cents to this. I have one pecan tree. As far as I can tell it was probably planted sometime in 1916 and is now probably 40 ft tall and 4-5 (maybe more as I have not taken a tape measure to it) ft in diameter. It was taller but hurricane rita came through and knocked down a BUNCH of branches. No clue what variety it is as I do not know much about the named cultivars. It does give out a good helping of pecans, probably every other year. This last year between what the squirrels missed and what got lost in the grass I harvested two gallon size ziploc bags full of pecans. I am eventually going to probably remove it because if it ever comes down it will probably take out both my house and the neighbors next doors house along with anything else in the way.

I had two beautiful Ash trees in my front yard that I had to remove because of the Ash Borers got to them. I love pecans, I used to have a neighbor in Mississippi that had a bunch of them and let me have as many as I wanted. Dax, is there a pecan tree that grows well in the 6a Zone?

1 Like

Hi Bob,

SE Ohio 6a is most likely going to be ‘Hark’ and ‘Mullahy’ again. You probably don’t have enough summer days to mature ‘Kanza’. Go to Google and search: Dave’s Garden Frost Free Dates and let me know what come up. You’re going to need about 185-190 days for Kanza. It’s basically a nut that needs two weeks more than my climate has. I have 170 and it’s exactly what ‘Hark’ needs.

The calculator at Dave’s Garden isn’t nearly as accurate as post 92 up above, but it let’s me know from my data what you should or shouldn’t grow.

Dax

1 Like